Wednesday Media Consumption Roundup

[mousetrappling]

Books

Fiction: Still reading "Without Remorse", Tom Clancy ... manic pixie girlfriend is now fridged, and "our hero" is being drug dealer killing vigilante by day & uber competant special forces guy by night. Or perhaps vice versa.

Non-fiction: still reading Gerald Harriss's "Shaping the Nation: England 1360-1461" - finished reading the chapter on domestic politics 1369-1413. The last few sections covered Richard's deposing and Henry IV's usurpation. Although the political elite in general weren't too sorry to be rid of Richard (at least after the first revolt was put down thoroughly), Henry IV struggled to feel secure on his throne. His first problem was legitimising his rule (after all, it wasn't legitimate), but he also struggled with not having enough adult aristocracy (particularly after putting down the rebellion) and not having enough money for his own expenses. He grudgingly accepted a council to help him rule, and as his health began to fail his son started to step in which didn't go down well with Henry IV and he ended his reign ruling alone.

Maps: 1938 CE - I've somehow only fitted in one map, the state of the world just before the outbreak of WW2.

Listening

Podcasts: ep 99-102 of The History of English - up to date with this one again, the time period he's got to is the beginning of Henry III's reign, and these episodes spent some time considering the new french words that were entering the language at the time.

ep 184-186 of the China History podcast - up to date with this one too, he's back after a hiatus & started a multipart series about Chinese philosophy.

Sunday podcast: ep 23-25 of Our Man in the Middle East - which finishes that off. I think our consensus is that we're glad we listened to it, it was interesting & informative - but also very depressing. His take home message was that the Middle East is in a bad state, which is partly the fault of various foreign powers who've been meddling and also partly the fault of the countries themselves. And the situation shows no signs of getting better in the near term.

Music: while running I listened to a 50s compilation called "Dreamboats & Petticoats Two", Spoon "They Want My Soul" and Counting Crows "August & Everything After" (which was an album I'd forgotten about).

Exhibitions & Tour

Egypt Uncovered: Belzoni and the Tomb of Pharaoh Seti I - exhibition at the Sir John Soane Museum to mark 200 years since Belzoni discovered Seti's tomb. A small exhibition, but with some interesting watercolours of the way the tomb walls looked when discovered, and some bits of the sarcophagus lid that are not normally on display.

Behind the Scenes tour of the Egyptian department of the British Museum - this was with the EEG, and I'll be writing it up at some point (along with the exhibition above). We got to go look at some of the 95% of the collection that's not out on display, so it was pretty cool :)

Living With Gods - exhibition at the British Museum, more notes here.

Watching

ep 5 of Eight Days that Made Rome - Boudicca's revolt. Felt a bit more shallow than the previous ones, and definitely felt like Hughes is a big Boudicca fan-girl

ep 5 of Blue Planet II - the green seas, i.e. the big kelp forests. Included a rather horrifying bit of spider crabs congregating in order to moult in company (so each one had a lower personal risk of being eaten).

ep 3 of Rick Stein's Road to Mexico - into Baja California, still making us hungry.

ep 2 of Army: Behind the New Frontlines - this one about the troops being sent to Estonia (a NATO ally) to hopefully look imposing enough that the Russians don't invade like they did in the Crimea. This series really is a well done piece of propaganda.

Eden Revealed - one of Channel 5's Ancient Mysteries series. If voiceover man hadn't kept shoehorning in nonsense about the Garden of Eden then it'd've been a really good programme - about Göbekli Tepe, the archaeological site in Turkey that has evidence of sophisticated monumental structures from c.9000BCE, pre-dating the development of agriculture which changes the narrative of how human societies developed. And bugger all to do with the Garden of Eden other than to note that the story of the expulsion from the Garden makes a good allegory for the development of farming.